'Ghutnatek CM': Bihar's Monsoon Session Adjourned Amid Ruckus, BJP to March to Vidhan Sabha Tomorrow

Amid protests on the streets of Patna and a ruckus in the Bihar assembly, the BJP will be organising a massive march to Vidhan Sabha on Thursday (July 13). The monsoon session was adjourned for the third day on Wednesday as chairs flew across the House and papers hurled by BJP MLAs demanding the resignation of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Yadav was chargesheeted in the land for jobs scam. The legislators are now accusing chief minister Nitish Kumar of being in fear of the RJD while calling him “ghutnatek CM”, due to alleged inaction by him in the matter.

Former minister Neeraj Kumar Bablu of the BJP told CNN-News18, “The Kursi Kumar (Nitish Kumar) has surrendered himself to the corrupt RJD, to land and liquor mafias. He has become ‘ghutnatek mukhyamantri’ and that’s why he is not able to ask for the resignation of a chargesheeted mantri. Although in the past, Nitish Kumar has accepted the resignations of Jitan Ram Manjhi, Ramadhar Singh, Mewalal Chaudhary when they were ministers and chargesheeted; but what happened this time? Why is he afraid of taking the resignation of deputy chief minister? He has surrendered and has no courage to ask.”

Yadav, after coming out of the assembly, spoke to the media and said, “The kind of behaviour shown by BJP MLAs doesn’t show that they are people’s representatives. They are not interested in raising people’s issues and are involved in hooliganism. I was chargesheeted in 2017 also, what happened in these six years? When I took the oath for the second time, nobody raised any question; why now?”

State Congress leaders, meanwhile, took part in ‘maun satyagraha’ where all the party MLAs and MLCs sat on a dharna at Gandhi Murti to protest against the alleged vendetta politics of the central government and extended their support to Rahul Gandhi.

State Congress chief Akhilesh Singh told CNN-News18, “It’s all about the injustice done to Rahul Gandhi, who has been wrongfully disqualified from Parliament by the (Narendra) Modi government. We are not questioning the judiciary but the kind of ‘vendetta politics’ that the Centre is playing is not acceptable. We will keep protesting till our leader gets justice.”

Protests on streets and lathicharge

Earlier in the day, police resorted to lathicharge to disperse members of a farmers’ organisation marching towards the state assembly. The protesters were demanding the post of public servants at their blocks, but they were stopped by police and chased away with lathis. Many farmers were left injured and the leaders detained.

Patna SDM Shrikant Khandekar said, “We had to disperse them as they were given sufficient time to leave the area. Section 144 of the CrPC is in effect, so no one can carry out any kind of protest around Vidhan Sabha. Gardanibagh has been designated for protests.”

A protest against the new rules for teacher recruitment in Bihar turned unruly in Patna at the beginning of the month, which led police to use force to control agitators that left several injured. Police were pelted with stones and resorted to lathicharge in return.

Teaching aspirants, who have qualified teacher eligibility tests conducted by the Centre and the state, are opposing the state’s new rules for school teachers’ appointment, transfer, disciplinary action and service conditions. According to the rules, teachers in the state will be appointed through a written examination to be conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission. They will thus be appointed as state government employees. Existing teachers are protesting this and have demanded that they too be given the same status without having to clear the written test.

The matter escalated when the state government decided to withdraw the domicile requirement for fresh recruitments and opened the teaching jobs to all Indian citizens. Not only aspirants, but a large number of contract teachers are also demanding the status of state government employees. There are close to 60,000 secondary and higher secondary teachers in the state and around 3.4 lakh are employed in primary and middle schools.

On Tuesday (July 11), more than 10,000 teachers gathered at the Gardanibagh protest site, demanding the status of state government employees.

Now, more than one lakh protesters and BJP supporters from across the state are expected to gather in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Thursday. The protesters will be led by BJP MLAs of their constituencies. The call is for ‘Vidhansabha March’ by top BJP leaders, where they will raise the issue of corruption, CTET-STET teachers’ jobs, 10 lakh jobs promised by Nitish Kumar-led government.